| ??? 12/01/10 10:56 Modified: 12/01/10 11:05 Read: times |
#179785 - Cheaper? Responding to: ???'s previous message |
Jecksons Ben said:
Why lot of experimenter moving to ARM? It's that ARM processor lower price that orginal MCS-51 and became standard of product? Per Westermark said:
No - not cheaper. That should be: not necessarily cheaper! Some ARM-based chips (particularly the low-end Cortex-M3/0) are cheaper that some 8051/2 derivatives (particularly the high-end ones); On the other hand, some 8051/2 derivatives (particularly the low-end ones) will always be cheaper than ARMs. The same could probably be said of any other 8-bit architecture. But the particular interest for Hobbyists, I think, is that there are currently some extremely good deals available on ARM kits; eg, this one (STM32) for under US$10: 
http://uk.farnell.com/stmicroel...dp/1824325 http://www.st.com/stm32-discovery Note that includes full on-chip debug, and all pins accessible on 0.1" pitch; You get a Cortex-M3 with 128KB Flash, 8KB RAM; It can be powered from the USB - so you don't even need a separate power supply! Why would a Hobbyist bother with anything else?! As I've said before, this is a (relatively) new market, so the players are fighting hard to establish themselves & their products - it remains to be seen whether these prices are sustainable... Edit: I guess I should clarify here that I am not affiliated to ST in any way, and this is not sponsored or endorsed by them. Other ARM vendors also have very competetive, low-cost devkits available. |
